MSNBC’s Reid apologizes again for old blog posts

MSNBC’s Joy Reid is apologizing again for past blog posts, including one that had an image of Sen. John McCain superimposed on the body of a campus killer and another where she urged people to watch a conspiracy film tied to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (Photo: Joy Reid/Facebook)

NEW YORK — MSNBC’s Joy Reid is apologizing again for past blog posts, including one that had an image of Sen. John McCain superimposed on the body of a campus killer and another where she urged people to watch a conspiracy film tied to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Reid said Friday there are things for which she is embarrassed and regretful about a blog she began writing in 2005. News organizations have been combing through some of those deleted blog posts to examine her writings.

Buzzfeed uncovered a doctored image of McCain’s head atop the gun-toting body of the Virginia Tech campus shooter, in a post from 2007. In a separate post a year earlier, she urged people to see a film partly funded by Alex Jones of “Infowars” that falsely alleged the U.S. government planned the 2001 attacks.

“I’ve … spoken openly about my evolution on many issues and know that I’m a better person today than I was over a decade ago,” Reid said.

Reid apologized earlier this spring for anti-gay language found in some other old writings, and suggested she’d been a victim of a hacker that inserted offensive language. But after hiring a computer expert, she later acknowledged that she could not prove that a hacker had any hand in what happened.

Her employer has not publicly addressed whether Reid faced any disciplinary action. But in a statement on Friday, MSNBC said some of the things Reid had written in the past “are obviously hateful and hurtful.

“They are not reflective of the colleague and friend we have known at MSNBC for the past seven years,” the network said. “Joy has apologized publicly and privately and said she has grown and evolved in the many years since, and we know this to be true.”

Reid, who hosts weekend shows on the news network, said she has reached out to McCain’s daughter Meghan about the blog post.

“I have the highest respect for Sen. McCain as a public servant and patriot and wish him and his family the best,” she said.

She also said there is no question in her mind that al-Qaida was behind the 2001 attacks.